Pages with the Naturalist style get "back to nature" through earth tones, speckled paper, and monochromatic colors. Naturalist pages often incorporate texture by using handmade papers, fibers such as jute, ripped torn or sanded edges﻿

___________________________

Michele

The Naturalist style is fun and easy to work with. Now is the time to incorporate all kinds of things natural like feathers, leather, cork, wood, paper, old book pages, small pebbles, corrugated cardboard, butcher's string, fabrics, dried orange or apple slices, dried mushrooms, dried beans, small cinnamon sticks, tiny pinecones, etc..

It's time to let our creativity go wild!! Here I found some old left over wood plugs for wood floors, they weren't too thick... perfect for my layout! I was also rummaging for a feather, I never found it but I came across some old eucalyptus that remained rubbery, it worked out pretty good, the colour is just what I needed. A really fun project for a very touching photo...

Gina used the Square Treat Box tutorial from from the Scor-pal website and added a cat rosette that was inspired by a home decor project from Martha Stewart.

To make the cat rosette, cut 2 pieces of black card stock, 1.5" x 12". Score every half an inch and pleat fold.

Attach the two strips together with Scor-tape to form a circle. Press the circle down in the center to form a rosette, and glue in place.

Add pieces of card stock to decorate the face. Apply glue to the eyes, ears and mouth of the cat. Cut a small piece of U Cut It Foam (Stacked pop dots could work as an alternative), and fill in the hole in the center of the rosette. Color orange with a copic marker.

Make a loop of metallic thread, and tie a knot in the center. Clip the ends to make whiskers. Place this on the UCutIt Foam (pop dots). Glue the nose over the top.

Complete the Square Treat Box, following the tutorial, and add the Scaredy-Cat to the top of the box.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

I have found that this is one of those issues that scrappers sometimes struggle with – what papers should I use? Can I really put this pattern with that one?

I have to admit that my scrapping friends think that I have a knack for grabbing papers for a layout that they would never think of putting together and then marveling at how well it works. And I also have to admit that this is one of my favourite parts of scrapping…looking through my paper and finding great matches!

Of course, one of the easiest ways to do this is to buy coordinating papers from a specific line designed to mix and match. But even so, some scrappers hesitate to really mix it up when it comes to pairing different patterns together. So what do I look for when doing this?

I start with picking out a consistent colour, usually the one that I want to coordinate with my embellishments. Then I look for papers that have this colour in common. You can also choose different shades of the same colour (light to dark) when picking your papers.

This one was easy – pinks, browns and light greens. Polka dots, paisleys and florals - two of these papers came from the same line, but the other two were pulled from my stash. In addition, I paired it with a die cut that had the same light green on it, as well as polka-dots to tie in with the brown on white polka dot paper.

This one was a little more complex – lots of colours to choose from. Two floral patterns, polka dots and stripes! This time, using solid colours and ribbon between the different patterns helps to make it work.

This next one had even more patterns incorporated into it – plaid, diamonds, circles, stripes and geometrics. All had the same colours in them – brown, blue and a rusty orange. By separating each pattern with the solid brown the patterns don’t clash. (Although this paper came from a 6x6 stack, you can get the same effect using your own individual papers.)

Yes, size does matter! The size of your patterns also factors into how well pairing different patterns will work. Florals are usually the hardest to pair up. If you are looking at pairing two different florals , try picking one large floral with multiple colours and then a smaller floral in one colour only that matches the overall colour theme you are going for. Your embellishments would most likely be in that colour as well to tie it together. Small polka dot patterns work well with many other patterns, again, keeping them to a single colour works best.

Stripes are another of my favourite patterns to use as they provide a great way to introduce not only your “theme colour” but also the other colours that are used on the layout. I usually try to pick a stripe that has a wider band of my theme colour, with the smaller stripe bands in the secondary colours of your layout.

Choosing a two colour theme is another way to easily pick multiple patterns for your layout. Think black and white! This is a perfect colour combination to mix and match with…try pairing a paisley pattern with stripes and polka dots. Don’t forget that your papers can be black on white or white on black, giving you different effects on your layout.

The bottom line is, don’t be shy…don’t be afraid to mix it up a little!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

This week's "Quic-Kit" uses the super adorable new line from Simple Stories - Baby Steps. The ladies at Fruit & Nut have used this yummy product to put together a gorgeous layout perfect for any new little ones in your life.

Monday, September 19, 2011

For my technique I used the templates as a template for bling - but I was worried that with just the templates alone you wouldn't be able to tell that it was a leaf design so I first went over the templates with a bit of smooch mist in a colour that was very similar to my cardstock colour.

We are only showing a few examples here, if you use your imagination, you can get a LOT out of your templates!! In my example here, I wanted to emboss the beautiful swirls from my Capricious Crafter's Workshop template because I wanted them to stand out and to look luxurious. This wild turkey that was in our yard earlier in the season was such a majestic bird, I had never seen one this closely and I wanted to give it justice.

I did not have forest green embossing powder. No problem though because I have super thick CLEAR embossing powder so I used a forest green Cat Eye's pigment ink with the template and with the melted clear powder over it, it gave me exactly what I wanted. I liked it so much that I inked the outer edge of my background with the same dark green pigment ink and added the clear embossing powder to emboss that too!! I had fun!!

So remember, I have been saying this for months with several projects: stock up on white and clear items, they always help get you out of a bind when you don't have the right colour!!

I used my Crafter's Workshop Template to create a background on black cardstock. I sprayed it with copper Glimmer Mist (it came out a bit uneven, but I kind of liked the look of it). Then I used a white gelly roll pen to draw some zentangles in a few of the diamonds. I also used the template to cut a few pieces of paper to add to the diamond pattern.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

You asked for it!! You wanted more paper techniques and this is a very simple one which makes a fun background for layouts and cards: Patchwork!! And I am also showing you how to use the Distress inks from Ranger. The little bottle is refill ink for the pads. So if you buy a pad and it goes dry, you only need to add a few drops of ink onto it and it's like new again!!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

I have a large family and with that comes many birthdays!﻿ I do pretty well but I just can never remember them all. Then, I saw this project over on the American Crafts blog. Such an awesome idea and definitely one I am going to try out for myself.

1) I first started by choosing four patterned papers out of the Margarita line. I printed out some blank calendars that I put together which you can download and print right here.

2) I cut all the calendar pieces and left a small white border.

3) Next, I cut the patterned paper pieces to 3.5x4.5".

4) Then I adhered the calendar piece towards the bottom half of the patterned paper.

5) I wanted to add a little tab at the top of the calendar pieces so I used some of the Bits variety tags and stapled them to the back of the patterned paper.

6) To finish up, I added some glitter Thickers that match the corresponding month.

7) Here they are all finished!

You could bind these with a jump ring, or sew them together, but I found something that fits them just perfectly. It is a box from Starbucks that holds those yummy cake pops. I only used the bottom portion. It fit the cards perfectly! I just added a few embellishments to finish it off.